Vancouver Dan Bouchard's parents had good reason to worry when their grown son suddenly disappeared. These are strange times in Vancouver, and paranoia may have played a factor in the panic generated when Mr Bouchard took off on June 9 from his home in White Rock without telling anyone. 'I had a little bit of a breakdown,' he said last week after re-emerging from his 'time out'. 'I had to get away for a while. It was very irresponsible of me.' As his parents looked on tearful and relieved, he told a press conference that he should not have disappeared, leading to panic and a rather costly bill for search efforts. Online, 1,500 people joined a Facebook site set up to help find Mr Bouchard. Many of them reacted ferociously when it was revealed the young man had taken off to Mexico without telling his family - for some time away from people he knew. The whole situation was embarrassing, said Mr Bouchard, but there was one bright side: his disappearance has drawn attention to what has been until now individual cases of missing people. A Vancouver Courier reporter gathered data over the past few years and found a significant number of disappearances - nearly 30 men, all healthy and young, and with no apparent reason. In one case, a 29-year-old at a four-by-four truck rally disappeared. His vehicle was found, the engine still running and the radio playing. A frantic search organised by his friends and family yielded no clues. Despite public pleas by distraught families, and reward offers in many cases, no one has stepped forward with information. On October 26, 2003, Greg Cyr left his girlfriend's apartment, telling her he was heading out to meet a man for coffee. He was never seen again. His family knew something was wrong because Mr Cyr, 43, called his young son daily, according to Miriam Byrne, his former wife. 'He was ... an extremely committed father whose world revolved around his son,' she said. Other families know that there is little reason to hope. Ron Carlow, 37, left his apartment in Vancouver's Yaletown neighbourhood on June 20 last year, and disappeared. Vancouver police are offering a C$10,000 (HK$77,200) reward. His family believes he is dead. 'We are devastated and in order to find closure, we need to find his body and bring him home,' said Loretta Copley, the missing man's sister. The families have since learned surprising information about their loved ones. Police spokesman Constable Tim Fanning said it was not uncommon for people to lead double lives. 'Sometimes people get caught up in bad behaviour.' Mr Bouchard - who fled to Mexico, where he promptly got robbed and was left penniless - hopes some good can come out of his behaviour. If any of the missing men are out there, he said they should call their families. 'I have to apologise to the families of the other men ... I'm sorry for bringing those feelings once again. I know that is difficult for them,' he said. The mystery of the missing men dovetails, whether coincidentally or not, with another puzzle that has gripped Canadians: five different severed feet have washed up on British Columbian shores in less than a year. Do the feet have anything to do with the missing men? In the absence of forensic conclusions from police investigators and scientists, the disappearances of the men and the appearances of feet are just dots that do not connect. Tomorrow: New York